


Different Frequencies

by FluffyHeretic



Category: Hatoful Kareshi | Hatoful Boyfriend
Genre: Gen, Post-BBL, as in uzune hitori
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-30
Updated: 2019-04-30
Packaged: 2020-02-10 01:42:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,060
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18650347
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FluffyHeretic/pseuds/FluffyHeretic
Summary: Everything's over. Long over. Now Shuu has nothing left.Yuuya visits for a chat.





	Different Frequencies

“Isa, someone’s here to see you!”

Hitori’s lilting voice cutting into Shuu’s thoughts actually wasn’t entirely unwelcome. It wasn’t like he had been doing much besides laying in bed, contemplating the state of his life, and that was far from pleasant.

He sat up. A distraction would be nice. And he was curious as to who it was and what they wanted. He just had to make himself presentable first. “I’ll be right-”

His door swung open, revealing Hitori - Kazuaki - whatever - and Yuuya.

“... out.” Shuu groaned under his breath and gave them both a glare to show how little he appreciated being barged in on like this, sitting on his bed in ruffled pajamas. He would have liked to brush his hair at the very least. And what the hell did Yuuya want with him?

“Sorry to barge in so rudely, docteur,” Yuuya stepped in and looked around, even though there wasn’t a whole lot to see. “I just figured it was about time we got to talking, hmm? Actually-” he turned back to Hitori- “if you don’t mind if we do so privately…?”

Hitori’s gaze flickered between Shuu and Yuuya, and his serene smile tightened ever so slightly, but he stepped back with a cheery, “No problem! I’ll go make some tea. Let me know if you want any, okay?” and closed the door.

Yuuya hesitated for a moment to hear Hitori’s footsteps move back down the hall. He went and sat on the end of the bed, and Shuu scowled in silent protest.

Shuu ran his fingers through his hair, hoping that at least getting some tangles out would make him feel better. “So, what do you want? To see what a mess I am and gloat about it?”

He expected a snarky remark of some kind or another, but all Yuuya said was, “No, I’m not.” He sounded uncharacteristically subdued, and seemed more interested in fiddling with his hands than making eye contact, like he was guilty of something. “Actually, um, what are you up to, nowadays?”

Shuu’s eyebrows knitted and he glanced down at himself. “Nothing. I’m not doing anything at all.” His entire life had seen a few ups and certainly plenty of downs, but throughout it all he had always had some sort of purpose. A goal to work towards. The most recent one had been developing a cure for Ryouta’s virus and reviving him from cryo, followed by regular check-ins to ensure he was recovering well. But that was no longer necessary, and for the past few months Shuu had been doing little more than waiting around for Hitori to get sick of playing with him and just end the whole thing.

It was driving him mad, quite frankly.

So when Yuuya said, quietly, “Well, I have a proposition for you, then,” it certainly piqued Shuu’s interest.

“Oh? Do tell.”

Yuuya looked warily at the door, then finally looked towards Shuu and leaned towards him to share in a whisper, “Join the Doves.”

Silence. Shuu became aware that his mouth had fallen open slightly and closed it, shaking his head to try to get some sense back. How the hell was he supposed to react to that? “You don’t- I… What do the Doves want with me? Surely I don’t need to explain why I’m not in their good graces.”

“Trust me, I know.” Yuuya looked away again, sounding exasperated. “But having ranked highly with the Hawks, you have a lot of information we’d love to have. And don’t you dare ever in your life dream of taking this as flattery, but you’re very intelligent. It’s just true. And you have an insane work ethic. So,” he threw up his hands, “I guess the idea popped into someone’s head up top that we could wring some use out of you.”

“And here I thought my usefulness had run its course,” Shuu muttered bitterly. “But defecting to the enemy side isn’t a small thing to ask. Why should I?”

Yuuya looked him directly in the eyes and said, almost casually, “Because what the fuck else are you going to do? You literally just admitted that you have nothing going on. Well, here’s something, and it’s probably the only thing you’re gonna get.”

It was a simple point, but a valid one. What did Shuu have for options except to keep wasting away? But still, this was so much, so unexpectedly. He was having trouble wrapping his head around it. “So they want information, and to have me work for them. Doing what, exactly?”

“You’re known around the world for your work in pathology. Look at how you just cured Ryouta. He’s doing great. The Doves have a branch focused on that sort of thing - curing diseases is a great way to improve quality of life, and you’re really good at it. So if you’re interested in working in a lab again…”

Shuu had to resist wincing, because the last comment struck him deep, even if Yuuya didn’t intend it. Because god, yeah, he really wanted to be in a lab again. It had been his singular goal once, that consumed his very being, that he sacrificed the remnants of his childhood for. His happiest years were in a lab, and although he knew he’d never get back to that place, working in a lab again would certainly be an improvement over this. He was meant to be in a lab - he belonged there, and nowhere else.

He hated that this actually sounded tempting. But… “It can’t possibly be that simple. There’s more to it, isn’t there?”

Yuuya rubbed the back of his neck. “As you said, you’re not exactly in the Doves’ good graces. There’s risks to this sort of thing, obviously. We can’t have you pulling some double agent maneuver or something like that. So you’d have to put up with some pretty heavy surveillance. Like, pretty much twenty-four seven.”

Yep, there’s the rub. That didn’t sound pleasant at all, but Shuu imagined it was the only way this would happen. He was going to need details, though. “And that entails, exactly…?”

“Living in a rigged apartment. Having your phone bugged. Living with… someone. Who’d escort you to and from work, and… things like that, I guess.” Yuuya had gone back to fiddling with his hands and was mumbling especially unenthusiastically.

Shuu didn’t see why Yuuya was reacting this way to this particular detail. Surely not- “... Do we know who this person is yet?”

Yuuya gave Shuu one of the more miserable looks the doctor had seen on him. “You’re looking at him.”

“You… can’t be serious.” Shuu didn’t understand. Why Yuuya? “After everything I’ve put you through, the Doves are really going to make you keep putting up with me? What’s the motivation behind that?”

Yuuya rolled his eyes. “At least you’re self-aware. Their logic is that I’m the one who has the most experience in dealing with you. And to be fair, they did give me a choice.”

So he agreed willingly? That only baffled Shuu more. “You’re more of a masochist than I thought.”

“I just felt too bad about making someone else do it,” Yuuya explained quickly. He opened his mouth like he was going to add something else, but seemed to change his mind. He hesitated, then continued, “Of course, if that’s a dealbreaker for you, we can get someone else.”

Shuu was already living with someone who stuck to him like glue. And despite their strained relationship, Shuu was used to dealing with Yuuya. They’d spent a lot of time together. He was probably better than some unknown stranger that Shuu wouldn’t be able to predict. But still. “I already live with someone who hates me and is intent on bothering me about it every day. I don’t know if doing the same thing with someone else sounds all that interesting.”

“It’s not gonna be like that. I’m not Nanaki- um, Uzune? Whatever he’s going by now. I’m not interested in that kind of thing. All I want is as little drama as possible. If you just keep your head down, do your job, and not start shit, I’ll be more than happy to do the same. Besides, even if I did want to mess with you like that, we’re on surveillance, remember? The Doves wouldn’t allow it coming from either one of us.”

“I see.” Shuu had to take this whole thing in. “This is… a lot, Sakazaki.”

“Yeah, I know. You don’t have to give me an answer now. Just text me in a week or something, I don’t know.”

Shuu had plenty more questions, of course. But they could wait. There was one more pressing than the others on his mind. “Why did you come here, Sakazaki?”

Yuuya looked at him, confused. “What do you mean? Orders are orders.”

“But you actually came, and you actually asked me,” Shuu said. “You could have lied and told the Doves I said no and been done with it. So why didn’t you? Why are you actually going along with it?”

Yuuya sighed. “Even if I don’t like it, I’m trying to put my feelings aside. I see their logic. And part of me is actually curious if this could really work. I’d like to see it happen, I guess?” He sighed and leaned back to lay on the bed, staring at the ceiling. “Living with you sounded like a complete fucking nightmare at first, but you’re such a workaholic we probably won’t see each other that much during the day. And when we do, there’s constant surveillance and another Dove agent living in the building if something does come up. Not that I imagine you’d have a lot of motivation for screwing with me anyway considering it would compromise your new job. It may actually be safer than getting into firefights all the time.”

“That’s it, though? You’re willing to put up with this because… you’re curious? Because it might not be as dangerous as you first thought?” Shuu wasn’t entirely convinced that that was Yuuya’s whole motivation, and he needed to know what that was to consider this seriously.

Yuuya twisted his mouth and admitted, “And it ensures that I’m assigned to a mission that keeps me here, alright? I don’t know if they’d, like, send me back to Europe or something otherwise. And I’d rather stay.”

For his brother, no doubt. “So you wouldn’t just be tolerating it out of obedience. There’s a benefit for you.”

“And for you. The only thing left is whether you’ll agree to it. And we’ll go from there, I suppose.”

“I can at least tell you that I’ll think about it,” Shuu said quietly, and god did he have a lot to think about. It was honestly still hard to believe that it wasn’t just some joke. And there was even more to consider that they hadn’t even discussed yet, like whether he’d have to change his name again, and how they’d get him out without Hitori catching them. But that could wait until Shuu actually decided if this was something he was willing to go through with.

“That’s all I ask.” Yuuya finally got up and headed for the door. “I guess I’ll go take Nanaki up on his offer of tea if it isn’t cold yet. If he asks, I’m going to tell him that we talked about what happened… you know, that day. For like, closure or something like that. Just in case he asks you too.”

“Alright.” Shuu wondered if that actually was something Yuuya wanted to talk about. Not that he was going to ask, but perhaps he should be ready for it to come up again. If this was actually going to happen then they would be seeing each other a lot more. “I’ll let you know what I decide.”

Yuuya gave a nod and a small wave as goodbye before heading out.

Shuu laid back down, staring up at the ceiling, and went back to ruminating, this time with a lot more on his mind. But now instead of lamenting the dead end he had hit, he had the very cautious optimism of having found an exit. Potentially. Possibly. Whether what was beyond it would be worth it or not, well, maybe he would just have to try and find out.

**Author's Note:**

> you may recognize this au from a fic i wrote during ship week, so you can probably guess what happens next.. id really like to write more fics for this scenario. i have a couple ideas flying around, but it felt necessary to write something that did some establishing first. im probably going to eventually write the direct follow-up to this and then go into a more episodic format. we'll see! i hope youll enjoy it  
> also if youre looking at the date and thinking i cut it close again... actually, i finished this exactly one week ago! if you want to read these fics a week early, it might behoove you to check out fluffyficsupport.carrd.co (itll make sense once youre there!)  
> comments are really really really appreciated!


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